The spiral pulse generator is a component which combines properties of a capacitor with those of a waveguide in order to generate ignition pulses with a voltage of at least 1.5 kV. By the production method according to the invention, it is possible to produce spiral pulse generators which are thermally stable up to about 500° C., 700° C. or 1000° C. depending on the material. The spiral pulse generator is configured as an LTCC or HTCC component, and consists essentially of ceramic films and metallic conductive paste or a metal foil, which are wound to form a coil and then laminated and sintered.
Spiral pulse generators can be used as ignition transformers for discharge lamps. For this application, it is above all the ignition voltage level to be achieved and the high thermal stability which are important.
The production of a spiral pulse generator as described is carried out either in LTCC (low temperature cofired ceramic) technology or in a refined method. LTCC technology is suitable for the production of monolithic ceramic multilayer systems with integrated passive components (see for example D. L. Wilcox, Proc. 1997 ISHM Philadelphia, pp. 17-23). This technology is suitable in particular for ceramic components into which very highly electrically conductive material such as gold, copper, silver or aluminum is intended to be integrated. The essential method steps of LTCC technology are:                producing a ceramic green film, containing organic binder, which may furthermore include a glass ceramic.        optionally producing openings in the ceramic green film, which are intended for contacting.        filling the openings with electrically conductive material.        printing electrical conductor structures on the ceramic green film.        stacking and laminating the ceramic green films to form a composite.        sintering the composite to form a body with a monolithic multilayer structure.        
The compaction of the ceramic material in the sintering process leads to a volume reduction of 10%-20%.
The LTCC method has previously been used only for components with a planar structure such as printed circuit boards, ceramic capacitors etc. However, since for example a transformer has inductive properties, it is wound. Wound components cannot be produced by the conventional methods for LTCC ceramic bodies.